Poll: Hard times are here to stay – beyond 2010

Americans expect the current recession will linger beyond 2010, and three in five rate their own personal finances as poor, according to a new Angus Reid poll released on Wednesday.

Only 3 percent say the U.S. economy has emerged from recession, only 7 percent feel the recession will end in the first half of 2010, and only 16 percent say it will be at an end by year’s end.

By contrast, 21 percent of Americans say the recession will end next year, with 29 percent saying it will last beyond 2011.

The poll of 1,004 American adults, conducted last week, shows a low view of the country’s political leadership – but President Obama is more trusted than others in Washington, D.C.

Forty-eight percent of those surveyed expressed trust in Obama to do the right thing to help the economy, with the president’s Democratic Party registering at 37 percent.

The trust figure for the Republican Party was even lower at 30 percent, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke also registering at 30 percent.

Democrats get a 35 percent thumbs-up as the best party to end the recession, with 42 percent picking they are the best party to create jobs. Republicans are preferred, with 35 percent, as the best party to rein in the national debt.

Between one-quarter and one-third of those surveyed said they are not sure which party would be best to handle the nation’s economic travails.

The poll found a worried country: In the past two months, 50 percent of respondents have worried frequently or occasionally about a member of the family losing his or her job: 47 percent have worried about their investments, 46 percent about the safety of their savings and 41 percent about being able to pay their mortgage or their rent.